Friday, 16 January 2015

real analysis - Proving that there is an irrational number between any two unequal rational numbers.

I'm trying to prove that there is an irrational number between any two unequal rational numbers a,b. Here's a "proof" I have right now, but I'm not sure if it works.



Let a,b be two unequal rational numbers and, WLOG, let a<b. Suppose to the contrary that there was an interval [a,b], with a,b rational, which contained no irrational numbers. That would imply that the interval contained only rational numbers since the reals are composed of rationals and irrational numbers. Furthermore, this interval has measure ba, a contradiction since this is a subset of Q which has measure zero.



Does this work? Is there an easier way to go about it, perhaps through a construction?




Construction: Let a=mn, b=pq. WLOG a>b. Then ab=mnpq=mqnpnq. Since mqnp>1, we can construct an irrational number a+1nq2 which is between a and b.

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